“RESOLVED, that shareholders encourage the Board of Directors to report on the feasibility of ensuring that by 2015,
all eggs and pork purchased by Tim Hortons’ from U.S. sources come from cage-free hens and pigs not bred using
gestation crate confinement system.”
Supporting Statement
There has been a groundswell of support in the United States for providing farm animals with more humane conditions.
The focus has largely been on how egg-laying hens are confined in tiny “battery cages” and breeding pigs are confined
in “gestation crates,” both of which virtually immobilize the animals for their entire lives and prevent them engaging in
many of their most important natural behaviors.
Food Industry Progress:
Starbucks, Wendy’s, Burger King, McDonald’s, Subway, Kraft Foods, Safeway, ConAgra Foods, Sara Lee, Sonic,
Quiznos, Chipotle, Carl’s Jr., Cracker Barrel, Ruby Tuesday, Hardee’s, Golden Corral, Krispy Kreme, Wolfgang
Puck, Whole Foods and many other companies have policies to shift partially or entirely to cage-free eggs and/or
gestation crate-free pork. Tim Hortons has no such policy. Additionally, one hundred percent of Walmart’s and
Costco’s private brand eggs are cage-free. And Unilever adopted a policy in 2010 to shift all eggs in all of its
products worldwide to cage-free.
Public Sentiment:
Food industry consultancy, Technomic, found that animal welfare is the third most important social issue to
American restaurant patrons (outranking the environment and buying local, organic, or fair trade). An American
Farm Bureau-funded study concluded that 95 percent of Americans think farm animals should be well-cared for.
Additionally, TIME magazine, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and other major outlets have covered the issue,
and Oprah Winfrey dedicated an entire episode to the extreme confinement of farm animals. A 2010 New York
Times editorial noted that the publication hopes that the extreme confinement of farm animals will be a “relatively
short-lived anomaly in modem farming.”
Legislation:
Eight U.S. states have passed laws banning one or both of these forms of extreme confinement, as has the entire
E.U.
Sound Science:
Renowned farm experts-and advisor to the pork industry-Dr. Temple Grand in has repeatedly condemned gestation
crates, saying “they have to go.” And a prestigious commission on farm animal welfare including a former U.S.
secretary of agriculture concluded that gestation crates and battery cages should be phased out.
We urge other shareholders to vote FOR this resolution. The extreme confinement of farm animals is a major social
issue in the U.S., and legislation, science and public sentiment support moving toward more humane systems, as do the
policies of many leading food companies. It would be in shareholders’ best interests to understand the feasibility of Tim
Hortons switching to the above-described products for the pork and eggs it purchases from U.S. sources.